Southern African Environmental News on the Internet

Kampala/Arendal 4. July 2002: GRID-Arendal launches today a new environmental news portal on the internet: www.earthwire.org/africa.

EarthWire Africa gives you a free daily overview of environmental news from 14 countries in southern Africa. Spread under subjects such as climate and energy, nature conservation and waste and recycling the site is an abundant source for being on top of the environmental debate in this part of the world.

Every weekday, a team of African journalists reviews more than 40 newspapers for environment-related news stories. Relevant stories are included in EarthWire/Africa where they can be viewed by country, topic, or time period. A search engine allows users to search for issues and keywords in the archive. Press releases and news from research organisations, the public sector, and environmental organisations will be included in the future as well.

EarthWire is used by government officials as a briefing on the day's environmental news, journalists following hot issues, students and researchers looking for current information on the state of the environment, and by anyone interested in current events and the environment.

The site is the second in a series of regional environmental news services, the first of which was EarthWire/Norway www.miljonytt.no.

Børge Brende, the Norwegian Minister of Environment uses this page daily and says: "I use Miljønytt every morning to keep updated about environmental news in Norway. Miljønytt provides me with a fast and broad overview of the topical environmental debate here in Norway and in our neighbouring countries. The web site is very useful to me in my work as Environment Minister. I am sure EarthWire Africa will serve as an important news source for Ministers of the Environment in the southern African region as well. EarthWire Africa is also important for people outside Africa, for gaining insight to the environmental debate here."

Svein Tveitdal, the Managing Director of GRID-Arendal says: " This is agenuine service facilitating promoting spread of African media coverage of environmental issues within and outside Africa. It will allow for people all over the world interested in African environment and development to get access to daily as well as a tremendous archive on African environmental issues. It will also bring news from African research institutes, NGO's and Governments into a global main stream of news."

The page is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.